Bridging the Gap

Aligning Learner Skills and Competencies with Jobs

Wellspring Project

Wellspring is a multi-phase project brought to the community by the 1EdTech Foundation and funded through the generosity of the Charles Koch Foundation and Walmart.  Bringing together institutions and corporations to accelerate an education-to-work ecosystem based upon verifiable digital credentials capturing learning achievements and skills to empower individuals to find jobs and help transform the education system as it moves from valuing seat-time to skills.

Information for 2020-2021 Participants

1EdTech Consortium is seeking academic institutions, businesses, and industry associations who are committed to advancing competency-based learning and skills-based practices to collaborate on a project to identify and document competencies for learners and workers. As part of a broader, multi-phase multi-year initiative, this project leads academic-industry partners through a process facilitated by Education Design Lab to:

• Analyze academic program outcomes, job descriptions, and industry frameworks
• Create, align, and publish competencies associated with the academic program and job role

Benefits of participating in the project include:

• Strengthening the relationship between an academic program and a local business partner
• Development of competency frameworks that have strong alignment between the academic program and a specific job role
• Engaging in cross-organizational dialogue about the value and priority of 21st-century durable skills (collaboration, creative problem solving, critical thinking, empathy, resilience, initiative, oral communication, global culture fluency) and receiving tools for incorporating these competencies into the developed frameworks

Full details about the project are provided in the informational video below.

The project will be conducted from January through June 2021.

Estimated Time Investment from Participation in Project Activities

• Remote calls: 5-6 hours (November, December, January, March, April, May)
• Competency framework development workshops: 8 hours (February)
• Internal organizational work: 40-80 hours (will vary depending on institutional needs)
• Costs: There are no fees to participate.

Important Project Dates

• November 12-19 & TBD: Participant partnership interviews
• November 30: Participant acceptance notifications sent
• December 11: Participant partnership acceptance deadline
• January 2021: Partners kick-off call (specific date to be determined)

If your academic program or business is interested in participating in the Wellspring project, take action now by following these steps:

1. Watch the informational video below.

2. Complete the questionnaire by November 20.

3. Schedule an interview with the Wellspring team by selecting a session in this Doodle Poll. Please contact the team directly if the available sessions do not align with your schedule.

Project Contacts

Wellspring Project Q&A

Is an institution able to engage in this project (if accepted) in more than one industry credential?

Absolutely! However, you would need to identify a partnership (employer/education provider/industry association) for each credential, assuming they are not related to the same team. We also welcome multiple job roles. Keep in mind that the requirement for participation is only one credential aligned to one job role.

May a university work with “themselves” as an employer? Universities are often major employers in their communities.

Universities, colleges, and K-12 systems can be the largest employer in their communities. We welcome these organizations as the “employer” but would anticipate that there would be two distinct teams working together. The academic representatives focused on a credential would work in concert with those who have expertise in hiring for the job role. An example may be the computer science department focusing on a programming credential and the information technology and HR departments focused on the programmer job role.

What are the benefits to participating partners?

For Education Organizations:

1. Further deepen the relationship with your identified industry partner(s) around a particular program or credential that matches a specific job role.
2. Engage in cross-organizational dialogue about the value and priority of 21st-century durable skills (collaboration, creative problem solving, critical thinking, empathy, resilience, initiative, oral communication, global culture fluency) and receive tools for incorporating these competencies into your frameworks.
3. Emerge from the process with tangible competency frameworks that can be used as a tool for evolving industry responsive programs with aligned job descriptions. These frameworks will be organizationally contextualized and digitally published using open technical standards in order to be leveraged to expand competency-based education, digital credentialing, or comprehensive learner record efforts.
4. Empower your learners to attend to missing skills by identifying the gaps between the academic and employer frameworks.

For Employer Organizations:

1. Further deepen the relationship with your identified education partner around a specific or group of job roles that match a specific credential.
2. Engage in cross-organizational dialogue about the value and priority of 21st-century durable skills (collaboration, creative problem solving, critical thinking, empathy, resilience, initiative, oral communication, global culture fluency) and receive tools for incorporating these competencies into the developed frameworks.
3. Emerge from the process with tangible competency frameworks that can be used as a tool for furthering skills-based hirings aligned with existing job descriptions, allowing for additional role/job description improvements. These frameworks will be organizationally contextualized and digitally published using open technical standards in order to be leveraged in skills-based hiring, employee upskilling/reskilling efforts, and innovative employee benefits or legacy development. 
4. Empower job seekers to attend to the critical skills you have identified by filling gaps between the academic and employer frameworks.

For Industry Associations/Consortia:

1. Develop meaningful relationships with education providers and employers to substantiate collective perspectives around the academic-employment pipeline within a particular industry.
2. Promote the use of the association’s existing frameworks. 
3. Explore the integration of 21st-century durable skills with technical content to respond to your member employers/stakeholder needs.

For those who are already sending competencies and credentials into Credential Engine’s Credential Registry, is there a way to optimize this data rather than have to duplicate efforts?

Competencies and credentials in the Credential Registry and CASE Network can be exported into JSON files allowing for easy entry and data sharing between the two systems.

Should partnership interviews be scheduled as individuals or as a team?

We would love the interviews to include the potential partnership team whenever possible. The Wellspring project support team is aware of time constraints and issues that might arise, and we will be as flexible as possible. Additional dates can be provided if necessary.